Family and Friends Forum

Hello,



There are lots of things that MPs could do.

For the victims - better regulation. Shut down these awful places like Kik. They've already done it for Omeagle, so it must be possible.

for the families - some kind of secondary victim status to allow us to access victim support and perhaps get better entitlement to anonymity of some sort

for the offenders - a legal "off ramp" - from what I gather most men stop once they're caught. There should be some way that they can self report and get help without facing conviction.



x

Its all one it being reported but this affects the family also wete still traumatised by the vigilante groups at my sisters home my dad has nightmares most nights and shouts out all the time its horrific those protests should not be allowed and criminal charges should be brought upon anyone throwing any kind of object as someone's home especially when other children live their also its ridiculous if you could mention that would be good ???? and good luck i hope you get sometong out of the MP for change and agree with what's been said above already also

Hi Lisa,

Definitely some specialised support for the non offending partners.

My ex was surrounded with support from his mosovo to probation whilst we received next to no help.

Sending you strengh you brave lady ???????? xxx

Sorry, don't know why it's added in question marks ! Xxx

I agree with getting more support for the families, and making the vigilante groups illegal.



I agree there must be something that can be done about self reporting. If am image is accidentially received, the person has two choices, one delete and hope its never reported or two report and face possible prosecution. If not searched for but accidentially loads there should be an avenue to report this. The law does say to be found guilty the cps must prove intent. But i have heard of a few cases on here that even without intent people are being found guilty. If they want these sites closed down, then how are they going to find them if no one reports them. Good luck with the MP and please let us know how you get on.

Anxious mummy

I have great admiration for you being so brave to talk to your MP about this.



Please ask them to review a report on prosecuting Sexual offences written by the Justice Working Party in 2019 and ask them to ask Parliament why the recommendations made in it have not been implemented. The report is accessible via a link at the bottom of the website page on the link below.

https://www.justice.org.uk/work/prosecuting-sexual-offences



They make several recommendations regarding the role of internet companies and the need for education to reduce the number of victims and to help prevent sexual offences.


On p.39 they recommend an IIOC conditional diversion scheme due to the increasing numbers of prosecutions for these offences clogging up the criminal justice system (many of them young people aged 18-24 that do not understand the law, and also many U18s).



Also, ask your MP to consider reaching out to Professor Rachel Armitage . She is currently in talks with IPSO about the impact of media reporting on families, especially children, in an attempt to get press standards changed with regard to these secondary victims. She has been collating evidence from families willing to share their experiences following media coverage of a family member’s offence.



Please let us know how your meeting goes.

k4

Omegle actually shut itself down, after the owner was sued by a victim. Kik is owned by a Canadian company and there is nothing the UK can do to shut it down, as it is based overseas.

But Ofcom can restrict access to it, if it fails to protect children and Kik has now introduced age verification checks. There might be more the UK could do to block access for UK users though.

I don't think most MPs are aware that Kik even exists, since it never gets talked about in the media, so mentioning to the MP that this app poses a threat to adults as well as to children, would be useful.

Webb89

It is possible to report websites to the Internet Watch Foundation through their website. This can be done anonymously, without informing the police.

If an image was found on social media, it can be reported using their own internal reporting tools.

Although I think that many of these images do not come from websites. They come from apps like Kik, and the person would have to explain what they were doing on there in the first place.

We really need support for families , I've just posted asking where got go to get support for my son. He's struggling through this and he's innocent in all this. I'm trying to get counselling but he's only 12 and everywhere waiting list are 6plus months. I'm now the sole financial p support for the family and don't have any funds spare for private counselling. Thou it's also hard to find someone for his age group

Just to say on the counselling, my son was recommended to a community counselling service, through our GP.

Well done Lisa for speaking up and thank you. I echo the secondary victim status for families, unlocking access to support and protection from intrusive media coverage.

MOON, I 2nd that my neice was only 13 and its turned her life upside down she is a victim to all of this and her life was ruined by media coverage etc she wasnt protected in any of it by law

Moon we were lucky with our daughters school we were open from the start about our situation, she got a psychologist immediately she could contact when she felt she needed to talk, it was weekly to start and slowly less frequent but none the less was available, sadly after court finished this was withdrawn, she was then offered the M.C.R pathway scheme where she has a mentor she used to see her weekly but now fortnightly, these have both been a huge asset to our daughter.

I've messaged you.

I don't think shutting down one platform will make any difference. The men who use kik will just move somewhere else which the police had less of an eye on. My ex was on Kik, but I don't blame Kik. It was his choice to cheat online and offline, to seek out voyeuristic (of adults) and other illegal or legally dubious content, and eventually come into contact with (and possibly seek out) IIOC. He'd absolutely have been somewhere else if not there...in fact he was all over the place - his decision to use precisely two passwords and one username made him easy to find! Its the men who are the problem.

All I'd like is more rights to information about his case, independent of him. We shouldn't be left dependent on the offenders for even the most basic information. And for better funding for forensic etc so everything doesn't take so ridiculously long.

This is scary, in reality an image could be sent to any one of us. The lady I speak to at stop it now told me people need to report to the internet watch foundation.

I would without a doubt pay to make sure that my family are safe online, I'm not sure if any app or system has been invented yet.